Games.com Blog: “FarmVille Update Sneak Peek?” plus 19 more |  |
- FarmVille Update Sneak Peek?
- Cafe World: Watch "Eat, Pray, Love" Trailer, Get 3 FREE Cafe Cash!
- New charity using social gaming techniques to attract interest
- Quote of the Moment: Fifteen Minutes of Farmville Fame
- Why are the most popular Facebook games losing players?
- Crowdstar's Fan Appreciation Week Giveaways: Day 2
- Universal Music songs coming to Music Pets, other Conduit Labs games
- Pet Society pimps Hotel City with special edition bear
- Treasure Isle Cheats & Tips: Six easy ways to get ahead
- Happy Pets: Arrival of attics introduces item storage
- Treasure Isle: Sad, lost seal spotted, needs new home
- Happy Aquarium: Loch Ness Babies take over Demo Tank
- YoVille Sneak Peak: More Enchanted Items Coming Soon
- FarmVille: Pink Manor Debuts in Market
- FarmVille: Cow Print Buildings and Others Return to FV Market
- FarmVille: Given up hope on your La Maison Building? Contact Zynga
- FarmVille: Unreleased Hot Rod Tractor Version 2
- FarmVille: Wandering Stallion keeping you from your neighbors?
- Mafia Wars Easter Crime Basket: Here comes Thugs Bunny
- Pet Society: Do or Dye at the Hair Stylist
| Posted: 06 Apr 2010 07:11 PM PDT FarmVille "Enhanced" tonight, only to give us a small teaser of things to come. There seems to be issues concerning tonight's update that has caused a delay in its release. Here is a Sneak Peek of FarmVille Freak KABEYGPATSKED's Market screenshot. We already knew about the new Green and Gold Mystery Box, but check out the other items that could be making their debut on a farm near you!
 This post first appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| Cafe World: Watch "Eat, Pray, Love" Trailer, Get 3 FREE Cafe Cash! Posted: 06 Apr 2010 01:00 PM PDT   I just tried it and it works. All you've gotta do is load the game (click here: http://zyn.ga/3q), look to the bottom, left-hand corner of your browser window, and click on the ad (image on the right). You must let the trailer play from start to finish before you're allowed to hit the "Next" button, but once you do that, the Cafe Cash is yours.
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| New charity using social gaming techniques to attract interest Posted: 06 Apr 2010 11:00 AM PDT  Here at Games.com -- The Blog!, we're all about social games. But we're also all about helping humanity. Just because we don't write about the second one as much as the first one doesn't mean we're not all about them both, OK?Anyway, when something combines social games AND helping humanity, we're REALLY all about it. So we're REALLY all about Armchair Revolutionary, a new group that promises to "adapt the features of Facebook games such as FarmVille and social networking applications such as Foursquare to involve people in social and environmental causes," according to a write up in today's The USA Today. The site, which allows users to uplaod photos, cast votes for various causes and even donate virtual currency to help them, sounds a bit more like a general social network than a social game at first. But performing tasks around the site earns players decorative rewards for their profile page and moves them up in the competitive rankings -- two nice social gaming touches. And some of the 250 projects to be funded are social games themselves, including one focused on promoting ocean sustainability. This cycle of using social games to fund other social games is one we're pretty sure ends in madness. Or in Zynga. One of those.
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| Quote of the Moment: Fifteen Minutes of Farmville Fame Posted: 06 Apr 2010 10:30 AM PDT  "The game of Farmville is to see how much money you can not spend while still effectively competing with your friends. This is not quite the same thing as buying a magic sword for WoW on Ebay. The magic circle is not broken here, it simply never existed.Almost none of the goods you can buy in this game serve any purpose except decoration. Creating an elaborate farm has more in common with posting a funny link on your Facebook profile than it does being a high level warrior. And if you hadn't noticed, people like to post crap on their Facebook profiles. It does not need to persuade anyone of anything, it is simply another set of things to broadcast about yourself on the internet. That twinge of pride you feel at your gamerscore? That urge to post on Twitter what you're ticked about that day? That's Farmville. That's Warhol's prediction about 15 minutes of fame, but now Zynga is selling it one minute at a time to whoever will pay in time or money." L.B. Jeffries introduces his recent Popmatters piece analyzing the appeals of Farmville, both commercial and gameplay-wise
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| Why are the most popular Facebook games losing players? Posted: 06 Apr 2010 10:00 AM PDT  The drop includes mega-popular games like Farmville, Cafe World, and FishVille, and compares pretty unfavorably to last month's statistics, where only seven of the top 25 games dropped users. So is this a case of what goes up must come down? Has Facebook gaming, as a whole, finally reached an unsustainable peak? Probably not. More likely, the surprising drop is a result of Facebook's recent decision to disallow spammy News Feed notifications to people who don't specifically sign up for them. This change makes it harder for games to spread virally via dozens of messages about virtual crops needing fertilizing or some such. It also makes it harder for games to remind players to come back to them, meaning many users probably just plum forgot to check in with their favorite games last month. Why don't we think the trend will continue? Because game makers are already adapting to the changed rules, offering lots of in-game goodies to get people to sign up for e-mail and fan page updates and figuring out new ways to spread their games in the post-notification era. There may be some small shocks as these adjustments continue, but overall we see no reason to think Facebook gaming has hit its true capacity yet.
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| Crowdstar's Fan Appreciation Week Giveaways: Day 2 Posted: 06 Apr 2010 09:45 AM PDT  Crowdstar -- the creator of popular Facebook games Happy Pets, Happy Aquarium, and Happy Island -- has announced that April 5th through April 9th, shall be known as "Fan Appreciation Week", and every day shall be a day of free giveaways.Giveaways from Day One can be seen here, but as of now, you can no longer get these from the game. These giveaways are a 24-hr period deal, so it's USE IT or LOSE IT! Be sure to check this page later in the day to see the rest of Crowdstar's Day Two fan freebies. Happy Pets  Day Two (c/o Angela via the Happy Pets Community forum): - Log into Happy Pets Tuesday 2PM PDT through 2PM PDT Wednesday and receive one FREE INSTA GROW! In order to claim your INSTA GROW, click on any baby basket (of any species). (You'll receive a prompt to use INSTA GROW, Cost = Free) - You can choose to decline this option and save it for another basket. - You can only use this once! - Free INSTA GROW expires at 2 PM Wednesday. (PDT) If you don't use it within the 24 hours, you lose it. Happy Island  Day Two: - Log into Happy Island Tuesday 2PM PDT through 2PM PDT Wednesday and receive one FREE Mossy Spring. - The Mossy Spring sells for 6,000 Coins!
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| Universal Music songs coming to Music Pets, other Conduit Labs games Posted: 06 Apr 2010 09:30 AM PDT  The deal is great news for Conduit, which until now has filled its line up of 150,000 shareable in-game songs with music from independent labels. Recognizable stars from Universal's stable could go a long way towards helping Music Pets become the first breakout hit music game on Facebook.
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| Pet Society pimps Hotel City with special edition bear Posted: 06 Apr 2010 09:00 AM PDT  Pet Society is urging players to give another Playfish game -- Hotel City -- a try by introducing a new collectible bear in the Furniture store. The Hotel City plushie -- a bear dressed like a bellboy with a red coat and cap -- costs a mere 10 coins and is really a steal for any virtual bear collectors (like myself) out there.  Have you played Hotel City yet? What do you think?
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| Treasure Isle Cheats & Tips: Six easy ways to get ahead Posted: 06 Apr 2010 08:00 AM PDT  Treasure Isle, the newest game from Facebook's top developer Zynga, combines the mission-based play from Mafia Wars with the interface and harvesting aspects of FarmVille -- it's no wonder the game is being pegged as the company's "latest hit." Here's how to get your hands on the game's fortunes as quickly as possible. 1. Plant Watermelons Your home island will feature two small plots of farmable land when you first begin the game -- you'll have a choice of four different fruit seeds to plant. You'll get the best return on your time by planting Watermelons. We've been finding that we play Treasure Isle in very short bursts, using up all of our energy hunting for treasures in one go, replenishing with any fruit we found, and then depleting our energy again. Bear with us as we do a little rough math -- the energy cap starts off at 100 and increases only a little with each level. Since energy replenishes at 1 point every five minutes, it'll take just over eight hours to completely fill up again, which means in about eight hours, we can come back and have another short play session. And what do you know, Watermelons take eight hours to mature -- perfect.  2. Ask friends for missing items in your collections This is crucial, moreso than in other Facebook games that you may play. In Mafia Wars, you can complete item collections by redo-ing the same tier of missions that grant those items until you finally complete the set. In Treasure Isle, you can't return to an island once you've dug/searched every grid -- this means that if you weren't lucky enough to complete the Hulu Outfit set on Guarded Shores, you won't be able to find those items yourself. Luckily you can list up to six items at once in your Wish List and ask friends to send you any extras they may find on their treasure hunts. Complete collections yield a massive amount of gold coins, so they're well worth the time invested in tracking down each item.  3. Don't buy trees/plants or gems in the store Unlike trees in Farmville, Treasure Isle's store-bought trees don't produce any goods, experience points or money. They're purely for decoration. The trees that *are* important are the Gem trees that you'll find on your and your friends' islands. There is one per island, and the color gem that it bears is automatically decided for you when you first start playing Treasure Isle. Make sure you visit your friends' islands frequently to harvest gems, especially if theirs produces a different color gem than yours. You'll need an assortment of them to open gem gates later on in the game. 4. Buy tools as soon as you can You'll find the Machete, Pickaxe, Dynamite and Bug Spray items in the 'Tools' section of the Store. While you're likely to be prompted to purchase each tool as you need them (Machete is needed to search for treasure in trees, for example), having them on hand boosts the chance that you'll find fruit or additional gold during the course of treasure hunting.   5. Get 100% on each island This should be a no-brainer, but in the event that you end up finding all of the treasures on each island before actually searching each grid -- don't stop! You'll get a major experience/gold bonus for completing the island itself, not to mention those last spots may hide fruits and other gold stashes. Energy points replenish eventually, so you have nothing to really lose by digging on those last few spots. 6. Add friends early and often. We're not huge proponents of spamming non-gaming friends with invites/gift requests but in this case, having an extra friend around may mean more than just a handful of additional coins each day. Since, as mentioned earlier, each friend will be assigned a Gem tree, you'll be dependent on them to provide you the necessary Gems to unlock certain areas of later islands (unless of course you want to shell out real currency to purchase Gem packs). And of course, there's also the added bonus of XP and coins just for visiting daily. Play Treasure Isle now > Have any additional tips on ways to get ahead in Treasure Isle or just looking for other people to play the game with you? Leave a note in the comments below.
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| Happy Pets: Arrival of attics introduces item storage Posted: 06 Apr 2010 07:45 AM PDT  
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| Treasure Isle: Sad, lost seal spotted, needs new home Posted: 06 Apr 2010 07:00 AM PDT  In the new treasure hunting game -- Treasure Isle -- from Zynga, lost seals have been spotted in the game and are in need of a new home. Much like lost animals in FarmVille, you'll receive a random notification while playing the game that lets you ask friends (via Facebook wall post) if they want to give the seal a home. If you select 'Ask,' the following notice will appear in your friends' news feeds and they can opt to 'Save the Seal.'  If you have in-game pics of what the seal actually looks like, please send the image to libe@games.com, and we'll post it here. Did you adopt a baby seal yet?
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| Happy Aquarium: Loch Ness Babies take over Demo Tank Posted: 06 Apr 2010 06:45 AM PDT  So let's see what they're showcasing this week: First off, you've got the animated "Wisteria Tree", in lovely lavender hues, drifting down petals like a sakura tree caught at night, and for 18 Pearls or 15 Facebook Credits, the price is pretty good. The "Dark Palms" are 340 Coins each, and obviously designed to complement the new "Moonlit Beach" wallpaper, which is going for the usual wallpaper price of 30 Pearls or 36 FB Credits. The "Beach Hammock" slung between the two Dark Palms, goes for 340 Coins as well, and comes as a single item. If you look carefully, you can spot the new Mystery Treasure Chest behind the Wisteria Tree. And if you logged into the game yesterday, you should've gotten a Chest for free as part of Crowdstar's Fan Appreciation Week. Everything else is stuff from older showcases, like that underwater Tiki Torch (from the Tiki Island theme), and the Bubbling Drink (from the Easter/Spring Picnic theme). Finally, we've got all those baby Nessies gallivanting in the tank. You can't buy a single one, since they have to be acquired via an Expedition quest, but if you click on them, you'll notice they have a maturation rate of more than 200 hours.
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| YoVille Sneak Peak: More Enchanted Items Coming Soon Posted: 06 Apr 2010 06:30 AM PDT  In the pictures, you can see a frog, a wall mirror decorated with leaves and red roses and trash basket made up of tree benches and vine leaves! It is the enchanted month after all! What is an enchanted month without an enchanted trash basket for your enchanted trash?! Those are considered to be small items, so most probably they will be sold in coins. Enjoy the pics. This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
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| FarmVille: Pink Manor Debuts in Market Posted: 06 Apr 2010 05:20 AM PDT  The previously unreleased item, the Pink Manor, has debuted in the FarmVille Market. It joins the other matching buildings of the Pink Cottage, Pink Barn, and Pink Shed. The Pink Manor can be purchased for 56 farm cash. There is also a slew of previously retired items that have returned to the Market, so be sure to check them out as well. This article originally appeared on: FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille: Cow Print Buildings and Others Return to FV Market Posted: 06 Apr 2010 05:15 AM PDT Some previously retired items have returned to the FarmVille Market with no expiration date. Perhaps, these items will become permanent features in the Market since they currently do not have time limits. You can now once again purchase these special edition buildings that includes the following: * Cowprint Barn * Cowprint Shed * Cowprint Silo * Vacation Home There are also numerous other "retired" decoration items re-surfacing in the Market. * Cowprint Potty * Cowprint Tower * Bonsai Tree (decorative tree) * Flourishing Birch (decorative tree) * Large Bolder * Blue Gazing Ball * Valley Quail (animal) * Log Bench (previously Giftable only) * FarmVille Sign Also, please note that April Fools' Day items and Easter or Spring themed items will be leaving the Market after the next 23 hours. For pics of everything, click below this post.    This article originally appeared on: FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille: Given up hope on your La Maison Building? Contact Zynga Posted: 06 Apr 2010 05:10 AM PDT As we already mentioned La Maison materials have been brought back until APRIL 12th at 9pm PT. Earlier today Lexilicious (Official FarmVille Community Manager) posted this on the Official FarmVille Forums. "Hey guys, "Due to technical issues that led to the La Maison gifts to expire earlier than intended, we are extending the gifts and ability to purchase a frame for one more week, from April 4th until April the 12th at 9 PM PDT. "For any users who deleted their Maison frames/partially complete Maisons, please make sure to contact our Customer Support department and they will be able to assist you as soon as they are able. "Because of problems that have occurred in the past with this feature, should the timing for the availability of La Maison gifting change we will inform you via the forums as soon as we have pertinent information. As always, we appreciate your patience with us, and apologize for any inconvenience caused." Source: Official FarmVille Forum So if you had given up hope on your La Maison building and deleted your frame contact Zynga quick! Use the following link to contact Zynga: http://zynga.custhelp.com/app/ask Zynga seems to be doing whatever they can to help players who were unable to complete their buildings. Are you satisfied by their efforts? This article originally appeared on: FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille: Unreleased Hot Rod Tractor Version 2 Posted: 06 Apr 2010 05:05 AM PDT  Thank you to FarmVille Freak KABEYGPATSKED for finding this unreleased FarmVille Hot Rod Tractor: Version 2. Source: FarmVille Unreleased Hot Rod Tractor Version 2 - Zynga FarmVille This article originally appeared on: FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille: Wandering Stallion keeping you from your neighbors? Posted: 06 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT Tonight, Channel Zero (A moderator of the Official Zynga Forums), posted this about a specific issue surrounding fertilizing neighbors farms. Channel Zero suggests harvesting your Horse Stable before attempting to visit neighbors might do the trick! "Thank you for all your information regarding this issue thus far. As a few players have already pointed out, there is an issue with the Wandering Stallion that causes loading issues when attempting to visit your neighbors' farms. This should only occur with the standard Wandering Stallion, and not the White Wandering Stallion, or LE Stallion. "As a workaround, please be sure to collect from your Horse Stables before visiting your neighbors if you have a Wandering Stallion in place. Once your Horse Stable no longer has a Wandering Stallion inside, you should be able to visit your neighbors without trouble. "Please note: This workaround only applies to players who can not load or visit their neighbors' farms. If you are simply loading very slowly when visiting your neighbors' farms, this may not help you. "Thank you once again for all your information and help with this issue, and we will update you once again when a permanent fix has been found. For now, this information has been added to our Known Issues section under the heading Visiting Neighbors." Source: Official FarmVille Forum Do you 'Fert and Feed' your neighbors daily? Did this workaround solve any issues for you? This article originally appeared on: FarmVille Freak.
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| Mafia Wars Easter Crime Basket: Here comes Thugs Bunny Posted: 06 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT  Just in case you didn't think Mafia Wars would get in on the cutesy Easter action, well, you're wrong. The Facebook game has introduced an Easter twist to its Crew Collection Series. From April 2 to April 9 at midnight PST, you and your Mafia peeps have the opportunity to gain new loot, bonuses and a few surprises in the Mafia Wars Easter Crime Basket.  To start the hunt, ask your Mafia for help. When you and your mafia members collect all seven eggs: checkered, plaid, striped, paisley, polka-dot, shiny gold and last year's egg (rotten of course), your Easter basket will be complete. You can then vault your egg collection to gain an Easter Metsubushi, an exploding checkered egg with 26 Attack and 48 Defense. Loyal Mafia Wars friends will spend their Energy doing jobs and searching for some of the eggs needed to fill your basket. The Paisley egg can be sent as a free gift and other eggs will drop as surprise loot from regular Mafia jobs or special Easter Crime Basket Jobs.  Just like the St, Patrick's Day special event, you and your crew may earn extra loot from a series of special jobs. You choose which job you want to do and how much energy you want to spend. For 30 Energy you can do the 'Swipe the Faberge' Egg Job' and collect XP and a bonus in five minutes. You can spend 60 Energy to do the 'Break into the Chocolate Factory Job' and collect your bonus in 8 hours. If you spend 100 Energy to do the 'Hijack a Toy Delivery Job' it will take 24 hours to receive your bonus, but there's a greater likelihood that you'll get a Rare Item, including the possibility of a 'Thugs Bunny' with 50 Attack and 28 Defense. When you complete one of the Easter Crime Basket jobs, you may share a 24XP bonus with your Mafia Wars friend, and if you completed all of your Easter jobs and still didn't get a 'Thugs Bunny,' (which would, frankly, be sort of a rip off) you have the option to pick one up in the Marketplace for 35 Reward Points.
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| Pet Society: Do or Dye at the Hair Stylist Posted: 06 Apr 2010 04:30 AM PDT  Color Me Brown Do blonds have more fun? We think not! This pet darkened her blond bouffant, but is now having trouble deciding on the shade. Help her choose. Personally, I like dark brown. It's very Agent 99. 
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